1. Higher than the highest human thought could ever reach,
Is God’s standard for His children, unto which they seek.
“Be you therefore perfect as your Father is in heav’n.”
This command is a promise, which is waiting to be giv’n.

2. In redemption’s plan, provision has been made for all,
To completely heal us from the ruin of man’s fall;
Unto us, God’s Spirit comes, to save from Satan’s pow’r;
And to keep us from sinning, ev’ry day and ev’ry hour.

3. Therefore do not think that there is one excuse for sin,
Or that God is pleased when there’s deformity within;
For a holy temper and a Christlike life is near,
Always within the reach of ev’ry penitential pray’r.

4. As our Saviour was in His life, so we are to be:
Perfect in our lives both now and in eternity.
Jesus took our nature, but He walked in sinlessness,
Showing us how to follow Him in perfect holiness.

God’s ideal for His children is higher than the highest human thought can reach. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” This command is a promise. The plan of redemption contemplates our complete recovery from the power of Satan. Christ always separates the contrite soul from sin. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and He has made provision that the Holy Spirit shall be imparted to every repentant soul, to keep him from sinning.

The tempter’s agency is not to be accounted an excuse for one wrong act. Satan is jubilant when he hears the professed followers of Christ making excuses for their deformity of character. It is these excuses that lead to sin. There is no excuse for sinning. A holy temper, a Christlike life, is accessible to every repenting, believing child of God.

The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. As the Son of man was perfect in His life, so His followers are to be perfect in their life. Jesus was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are. He was hungry and thirsty and weary. He was sustained by food and refreshed by sleep. He shared the lot of man; yet He was the blameless Son of God. He was God in the flesh. His character is to be ours. The Lord says of those who believe in Him, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16.

Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw, the base resting on the earth, and the topmost round reaching to the gate of heaven, to the very threshold of glory. If that ladder had failed by a single step of reaching the earth, we should have been lost. But Christ reaches us where we are. He took our nature and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome. Made “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), He lived a sinless life. Now by His divinity He lays hold upon the throne of heaven, while by His humanity He reaches us. He bids us by faith in Him attain to the glory of the character of God. Therefore are we to be perfect, even as our “Father which is in heaven is perfect.” – p. 311, 312